Re: [Full-Disclosure] Erasing a hard disk easily

[David Vincent]

Gregh wrote: An overwrite with all zeros will -allegedly- not withstand a serious data-recovery attempt by professionals, not even when repeated. I know you stated "allegedly" but this subject interests me. Many years ago, a good friend of mine who had been in to pirating and suddenly realised he could end up behind bars if he was ever caught got the shakes thinking about it. He deleted it all and I let him know that wasn't good enough. He got hold of a simple basic program that kept looping until the disk was full, writing a line of 80 of the number "8" to the disk making one file that got bigger and bigger until, ultimately, it filled the disk. Once filled, it would close the file and all you had to do was boot into DOS and delete it and the space was free once more all overwritten with the number "8" wherever you looked with a sector editor. Since that time I have seen sensationalist TV shows showing how FBI and CIA operatives get stuff out written to a sector BEFORE the sector was overwritten and I honestly cannot understand how that could be, if at all possible. Am I right in thinking those shows are bull? no, you are wrong.  see here: http://www.google.com/search?q=g2-003_e.pdf read the PDF at the first hit for more info than you wanted to know. -d -- David Vincent MCSE Chief Support Technician Sleepdeprived Tech Support email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 24hr phone: (250) 884-3000 _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html